Seller didn't read the Terms of Service

[lawdog86]

Buyer didn't read the Terms of Service

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? North Carolina

My fiancee runs a small private business from our home making mascot costumes. Someone from PA commissioned her for a product and accepted our terms of service for $475.00. During the progress of making the item, the commissioner continued to baggier and harass her for date of completion move up when she did not make any such agreement. She sent several emails saying that he needed to stop or she would drop his order. He read the warnings, agreed to them, continued to ask daily on a completion date for events less than two weeks away and she dropped it. (These suit can take a minim of two months to complete a head piece alone). He stated he never read the terms of service and never understood them when he agreed to this. Now he is saying it was a false terms of service due to her not being a LLC group but this agreement was done off of a buyers/sellers agreement. Now he is getting all his local friends to write nasty emails and is threatening the business by saying they will make sure we never get another commission again as well as threatening to sue us for either the finished product or reimbursement. This is part of our lively hood and it helps pay the rent. We have all the pictures to show he agreed to these original terms as well as the warnings. Did she do anything wrong? What steps can we take?

 

[justalayman]

You seem to have left out something. You refer to the tos like it is important but have not explained why it would be.

The problem; regardless of whether she did anything wrong or not is irrelevant. She is not being sued but apparently being subjected to a boycott of some sort and being subjected to a critical commentary via email.

What to do; ignore them. Unless they defame her in some way they are allowed to tell their friends to not commission her to do work.


A much bigger issue, possibly;

What sort of mascots are you talking about? Many schools hold protected rights over their mascots. Unless you girlfriend is authorized to reproduce those mascots, she could find herself being sued. If you are talking about college or pro level mascots, she may want to speak with a lawyer to be certain she isn't in jeopardy of being sued.

 

[justalayman]

I see you added a lot


Why does she believe she can cancel the sale and keep whatever money the customer has already paid?

 

[lawdog86]

The way she does it is that they must agree to her own terms of service which stipulates what happens when this occurs and such. He is stating that he did not read over it and because of that it is void even thought he gave a written agreement of understanding before the project even began.

The suit are custom made. They do not look like nor will she ever copy a copyrighted mascot or figure without permission from the group themselves. We do suits for individuals and small groups. This case is a personal project.

 

[lawdog86]

I see you added a lot


Why does she believe she can cancel the sale and keep whatever money the customer has already paid?

She does NOT believe that but when a person continually disregards the request of the person they commissioned, how long really does that person have to endure the constant negativity and borderline harassment?

 

[justalayman]

If she doesn't believe she has a legal right to keep the money she needs to return it. But more importantly; does something in the contract allow her to keep the money and not deliver a product. Terms like that are very difficult to enforce as they at inequitable.

Tos are difficult to incorporate into a contract unless they are actually included in the actual contract. If the tos are not in the contract they cannot control the contract so are the tos actually part of the contract?

 

[Zigner]

She does NOT believe that but when a person continually disregards the request of the person they commissioned, how long really does that person have to endure the constant negativity and borderline harassment?

Your wife is in the customer service business. Sometimes customers are jerks...but they're still customers.